So many Yiddish words are in the mainstream--schelp, glitch, mish-mosh, klutz---
However, here in NYC, we bump our Yiddishisms up a notch.
Several years ago, a friend and I were walking along the street. We passed an acquaintance of ours who thought of herself as a fashion maven. But she was wearing a hideous outfit that combined stripes and a paisley print in a rainbow of colors. Our conversation, after the what-not-to-wear passed, went something like this:
Oy vey! What's that schamatta she was wearing?
I don't know. Those stripes and paisley were ungapatchka. Schlocky fabric, too.
It takes chutzpah to wear such drek.
She doesn't even have a bissel of good taste.
My friend and I then turned to each other and began to laugh. Here we were two Christian gals originally from the suburbs talking like we were raised on the Lower East Side.
For a few years I worked with a couple of people who taught me some of the finer points of Yiddish. I think this was their reference guide.
**** This ABC mishegas is almost over! I need to get Z is for. . . done by January 3rd. (MY 2009 ABCs focused on NYS/NYC stuff.)
6 comments:
You are too much! And I just knew you'd get your ABC's done -- Happy New Year!
Oh, Mary. I laughed and laughed, especially when I got to the end.
Oy vey! This post gives me a craving for a bagel with a schmear.
KnittingKittens
Mary, I'm kvelling! Great blog!
Very good. Only one more and we'll be the only two celebrating a fait accompli! What do you think we should do to mark the occasion???
By the way, the scarf in the last post is gorgeous!
This post was a mitzvah! ;-)
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